Birmingham leads the way on house price growth

Birmingham house prices are rising faster than any other major UK city with a 7.8% increase in the year to July 2017, Hometrack figures show.

Following the increase prices in Birmingham average at £154,900.

Other fast growing cities are Edinburgh (6.5%) and Manchester (6.4%), with Aberdeen being the only city to show negative growth (2.7%).

Overall house prices have risen by 5.1% across 20 major UK cities.

Richard Donnell, research and insight director at Hometrack, said: “The headline rate of city house price inflation is holding up, despite the squeeze on real incomes and uncertainty around Brexit.

“The Brexit impact was greatest over the second half of 2016 but house price growth has picked up over the last six months. This is consistent with an 11% increase in the number of home purchase mortgages, which is also 5% higher than the five year average.

“In London, the Brexit vote has had a greater impact on buyer sentiment and combined with affordability issues has led to a 10% reduction in the annual growth rate over the last 12 months.

“However, although house price inflation has fallen sharply in the capital it is starting to flatten out and the rate of growth is likely to avoid year on year price falls in the coming months.”

London house price growth is at a five year low of 2.6%, while Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge have all seen a slowdown in the past 12 months.